By IANS
Kolkata : A West Bengal cricket forum Tuesday filed a case in the city civil court against the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) and Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment Ltd, which is the Kolkata franchisee of the Indian Premier League (IPL), demanding free tickets for all 31,000 members of the state body for IPL matches.
Cricket Members’ Forum of Bengal convenor Abhijit Sarkar told IANS: “We have filed the case after our repeated representation to the CAB yielded no result. Our association is registered and has more than 10,000 members and counting.”
“According to Rule-15 of CAB constitution all life members, associate members and affiliated members are supposed to get free tickets for all matches organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)/CAB. We are 31,000 members and this match is not for any benevolent cause or charity. So, there is no reason why we will not get our free tickets,”
Sarkar said.
The case will come up for hearing Wednesday. Counsel Ajoy Sanyal will plead the case for the forum.
The ticket imbroglio regarding the IPL matches continues to torment the CAB officials after the dissident group led by Jagmohan Dalmiya demanded free tickets for all the members.
The CAB in return has allotted 13 free tickets to its affiliated units and decided to give tickets at a concession to all other members, besides allowing them a head start of five days ahead of the public sale of tickets.
Sarkar said, “We have nothing against Shah Rukh Khan. We welcome him and want IPL matches to be held here.”
“But we have our money in CAB and we want our share of free tickets. We are not wanting anything extra-constitutional,” he said.
CAB joint secretary Amitabha Banerjee told IANS, “We have heard of one such case but we can’t react until we get the papers. Our solicitor firm Fox and Mandal is looking into the case and if it comes up for the hearing Wednesday, they will represent us.”
Asked if they could file a case against CAB on its constitutional ground, he said: “All I tell you right now is that we have gone by our rule.”
The IPL ticket row broke out from the time when it was declared that 20 percent of the tickets would be given to the hosting cricket association and the rest would be utilised by the franchise for public sale.